Peter Reid must have given the half time team talk of the decade to inspire Plymouth Argyle to a 2 – 3 win at the Memorial Stadium against southwest rivals Bristol Rovers. The Pilgrims found themselves 2 – 0 down in the first 11 minutes, Will Hoskins struck twice in three minutes to give the home side a healthy 2- 0 lead. At this point I’m thinking that Argyle were destined to walk away from the Memorial Stadium empty handed as Plymouth are not known for the miraculous comebacks. But I’m happy to say that I was wrong, Plymouth looked like a different team in the second half, having the lions share of the possession and chances. Plymouth and league top scorer Bradley Wright-Phillips pulled one back on the 58th minute. Eleven minutes later the Pilgrims were level, this time Joe Mason who is seen as the replacement for Craig Noone netted for Argyle. Stephane Zubar won it for the Pilgrims on the 81st minute with a glancing header. Zubar has impressed massively, he is strong in defence and can also score goals, he’s already scored two for Argyle since breaking into the squad. Plymouth now up to twelfth in the league, eight points clear of the relegation zone, a nice cushion to have given the uncertain future of the club.
According to the Blackpool Gazette; Bradley Wright-Phillips is close to a deal which will see him move to Ian Holloway’s Blackpool. I can’t stress how bad this will be for Argyle’s future if it is true! I really hope that Peter Reid fights tooth and nail to keep BWP; I believe he is vital to Plymouth staying up and progressing in the league and hopefully promotion in future seasons. Not only that, Plymouth had to sit through Wright-Phillips fitness struggles last season, that patience is paying off now, I’m going to be mightily pissed off if Peter Ridsdale forces the sale of Wright-Phillips plus I don’t want Holloway to get hold of another one of our top strikers.
England’s cricket team are in a good position to claim the fifth and final Ashes test. The tourists reached 488 – 7 at the close of play on day three; a lead of 208 runs over the Aussie first innings. Although there was some controversy on day three; Philip Hughes claimed to have caught Cook at slip when the Englishman was on 99 runs not out. Cook used a review which proved that the ball did not carry to Hughes. There has been all sorts of accusations of cheating but ultimately the correct decision was made which vindicates the use of the review system. Allistair Cook went on to make 189 runs before being caught legitimately by Hussey. Ian Bell smashed 115 runs before being caught by Clark. Paul Collingwood went for another disappointing low score; how much longer will he be given to regain his form? As much as I like Collingwood, it’s time for a change! Matt Prior finished the day on 54 not out partnered by Tim Bresnan who is yet to get off the mark. I think England will look to bat out the morning session to get past 500 and then declare should Prior and the tailenders manage to survive! I have to admit it’d be nice to see Prior cap the innings off with a ton but that will be difficult with only bowlers as partners, but you never know!
In life here in Kansas, my wife who works for the company that runs the apartment complex where we live has told us that we may have to move out because Erin and I didn’t pass the credit check. Erin has poor credit and I have no credit as I haven’t applied for credit since living in the United States. Bear in mind that we have been living here a few months shy of three years, why bring it up now? The only reason my wife has stayed in this job is because of the free apartment that was offered to her as part of a pay deal when she intended to leave to work elsewhere with much better pay. So now we find ourselves in limbo while we wait for a decision. This really couldn’t have come at a worse time, given our decision that it’s best for me to stay home with the kids and the amount of money we’d need to get my Autistic son the help he needs. The free apartment is what allowed us to do what we needed to do. We are now contemplating moving to the UK earlier than planned if Erin gets the maximum payout for her personal injury claim after the car wreck and we get a decent tax refund like last year, which was almost $10,000.